USFWS Notice of Availability for Alabama Beach Mouse Permit Application

Content

ACTION:

Notice of availability; request for comment.

SUMMARY:

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce receipt of one application from Ethan Bishop (applicant) for an
incidental take permit (ITP), pursuant to the Endangered Species Act, under the Service's approved General Conservation Plan
(GCP) and final environmental impact statement (FEIS) for the Alabama beach mouse. The applicant requests the ITP to take
the federally listed Alabama beach mouse (ABM) incidental to the construction of a single-family home in Baldwin County, Alabama.
We request public comment on the application, which includes the applicant's proposed habitat conservation plans (HCP), and
on the Service's preliminary determination that the proposed permitting action qualifies under the terms of the ABM GCP. We
invite comment from the public and local, State, Tribal, and Federal agencies.

DATES:

We must receive your written comments on or before April 13, 2026. Comments submitted electronically using the Federal eRulemaking
Portal (see
ADDRESSES
, below) must be received by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on the closing date.

To ensure your comment is received and considered, you must submit it using one of the methods identified in the
ADDRESSES
section of this document. Comments submitted through any method not authorized in this document, or sent to an address not
listed here, will not be considered.

ADDRESSES:

Comment submission: All submissions must include the docket number [FWS-R4-ES-2026-0067] this document. You must submit comments using one of
the following methods:

• Online: https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments on Docket No. FWS-R4-ES-2026-0067.

• U.S. mail: Public Comments Processing, Attn: Docket No. FWS-R4-ES-2026-0067; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS: PRB/3W, 5275 Leesburg
Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803.

Comments submitted through any method not authorized in this document, or sent to an address not listed here, will not be
considered. We will not accept comments via email, fax, or hand delivery. We are not required to consider comments that are
submitted after the comment period ends or that are submitted via a method outside of these instructions. Comments containing
profanity, vulgarity, threats, or other inappropriate content will not be considered.

We will post all comments at https://www.regulations.gov. You may request that we withhold personal identifying information from public review; however, we cannot guarantee that we
will be able to do so. See Request for Public Comments for more information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Erin Lentz, by U.S. mail (see
ADDRESSES
), by telephone at 1-251-298-3853, or via email at erin_lentz@fws.gov. Individuals in the United States who are deaf, blind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD,
or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services. Individuals outside the United States should use the relay services
offered within their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), announce receipt of an application from Ethan Bishop under the approved
General Conservation Plan (GCP) for the Alabama beach mouse (ABM; Peromyscus polionotus ammobates) for an incidental take permit (ITP) under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). The applicant requests the ITP to take the federally listed incidental to the construction, maintenance and operation of
a single-family home in Baldwin County, Alabama.

A GCP is a mechanism that meets the definition of a conservation plan in section 10(a)(1)(B) of the ESA and enables the construction
of a programmatic permitting and conservation process to address a defined suite of proposed activities over a defined planning
area. We certify that each application to enroll in the GCP is statutorily complete and includes the necessary information.
We have no evidence that the applicant is disqualified pursuant to 50 CFR 13.21.

We request public comment on the application, which includes the applicant's habitat conservation plan (HCP), and on the Service's
preliminary determination that the requested ITP qualifies under the ABM GCP and final environmental impact statement (FEIS)
published on March 28, 2012 (FWS-R4-ES-2012-N063).

Proposed Project

Ethan Bishop requests a 50-year ITP to take ABM via the conversion of 0.09 acre (ac) of occupied nesting, foraging, and sheltering
ABM habitat incidental to the construction of a single-family home on a 0.52-ac parcel located off Palmetto Drive in Gulf
Shores, Alabama. The applicant proposes to mitigate for the take of ABM through an in-lieu fee of $8,535.30 to the Alabama
Coastal Heritage Trust's ABM conservation fund.

Our Preliminary Determination

The Service has made a preliminary determination that the applicant's proposed project, including the construction of the
residential development and associated infrastructure (e.g., electric, water, and sewer lines), would have a minor effect on ABM and the human environment. Reasonably foreseeable effects
encompass effects of implementation of the action including effects of the action in addition to other past, present, and
reasonably foreseeable future effects. Therefore, we have the made a preliminary determination that, if issued, the requested
ESA section 10(a)(1)(B) permit action would meet the requirements of the GCP and FEIS.

Next Steps

The Service will evaluate the application and the comments to determine whether to issue the requested ITP. We will also conduct
an intra-Service consultation pursuant to section 7 of the ESA to evaluate the effects of the proposed take. After considering
the preceding and other matters, we will determine whether the permit issuance criteria of section 10(a)(1)(B) of the ESA
have been met. If met, the Service will issue ITP number PER23666323 to Ethan Bishop.

Public Availability of Comments

Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, be
aware that your entire comment, including your personal identifying information, may be made available to the public. If you
submit a comment at https://www.regulations.gov, your entire comment, including any personal identifying information, will be posted on the website. If you submit a hardcopy
comment that includes

  personal identifying information, such as your address, phone number, or email address, you may request at the top of your
  document that we withhold this information from public review. However, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.
  Moreover, all submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as representatives
  or officials of organizations or businesses, will be made available for public disclosure in their entirety.

Authority

The Service provides this notice under section 10(c) of the Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) and its implementing regulations (50 CFR 17.32), National Environmental Policy Act (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and the Department of the Interior's implementing regulations (43 CFR part 46).

Jeffrey Powell, Acting Field Supervisor, Alabama Ecological Service Field Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. [FR Doc. 2026-04975 Filed 3-12-26; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4333-15-P

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